Bottle-capping machine



UNITED STATES PATENT errce.

GUSTAV 's'rnANn'r; or MILWAUKEE, WIsooNsIN, ASSIGNOltTO MILWAUKEE nAInir SUPPLY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, or MILWAUKEE, WIsooNsIN, A CORPORA- 'rIoN or WrsooNsIN.

Toullavhomitmay concern:

Be it known that I, GUsTAvS'rRANn'r a citizen of the United States, residing at hfiL- waukee,-county of Milwaukee, and State of- VVisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Capping Mach nes,

of which the following is a specification.

-My;inventi'on relates to mprovements 111 that class of bottle capping machines in.

which a reciprocatory cap inserting plunger is connected to a transversely movable feeding, device which successively daelivers caps from a magazine into the path ofthe plunthe bottle.

g Heretofore the caps inserted by machines of-this general type have been composed of ordinary flat circular disks, but a demand has been'created for a more sanitary cap 111 which the sealing cap insertible within the.

mouth ofa bottle, is'conn'ected with a superposed covering cap which engages over ,the top of the bottle and prevents dust and other material from lodging upon the sealing cap. Theseimproved sanitary caps comprise two'circular disksof unequal (11am.- eters, connected with each other and spaced apart by an intermediate spacing disk of smaller diameterthan' the smaller cap-disk.

The smaller cap disk is adapted to fit into the bottle and engage in an annular groove formed in the inner wall of the mouth of The lar er cap disk is adapted to fit upon the top of the bottle, its diameter being greater than that of the bottle mouth,

Pound Caps from a magazine into the path of the capper 1 In the drawings- Figure 1 is a side elevatioii'of 'a ibottle 'capper embodying my invention. I

The object of my invention is to provide a capping machine with feeding apparatus -capable of delivering these double or comof the guide waly and forms a part of the .along the guide way The capping machine illustrated is of the d noTr n-oArr'INejMAoH-mn.

' Specification of Letters Patent. P t 'nt 1 1920.

' npplieatibnjhled December 15,1915. Serial No. 66,885.

. samebgeneral type as that shown in my Patent 0.1040453, dated October 8, 1912, in which a. cap inserting plunger-A is adapted to IGCIPI'OCEIlZB in a guide cylinder B, motion belng'impartedto the plungerby means of an actuating stem C. D is a magazine in which the caps .may be stored in superposed position, the magazine being open at its lower end and adapted to deliver-caps to a" guide way E, from which they may be forced one at-a time into the path of the plunger A. A bracket F is rigidly secured. to the'plunger C and adapted to transmit. motion'through link G. and an elbow crank, ha-ving a slotted arm H and a long arm I pivotallyconnected at J with a link K attached to a suitable carriage with which a .cap feeding slide is connected. Allof these parts may be of any ordinary construction,"- and for the purpose of this application, they may be assumed to be substantially the same 'as those shown and described in my former patent above referred to, except that the magazine D is sufficiently enlarged in diameter to receive the sanitary caps above men'- 'tioned. Theplunger A and cylinder B are correspondingly enlarged and the guide E is formed with forked arms'E adapted, to receive the sealing cap disk between them, with the covering. cap disk resting upon their upper surfaces.

A carriage" -is mounted to slide along the guide way and is provided with bearing surfaces 2 and ,3engaging the side margins and under s'urfaces ofthe guide adjacent to the margins, as bestshown in Fig. 4.

.These bearin'gmembers are connected across the top of the guide way by a cap'feeding plate 5, which bears upon the upper surfaces carriage. The! nks K are pivotally connected to the carriage at 6, whereby the earriage may be reciprocate'd" horizontally The forward end off the 5'. con- I00 I cavely rounded, as indicated at 7, this,margin of the plate conforming in curvature and substantially conforming in thickness to the curvature and thickness of the cover cap a. Centrally secured underneath the 10 forward end of the plate 5'by rivets 11, is v an auxiliary cap feeding member 12 which projects inwardly from the curved margin 7 immediately below ,said margin, this member being adapted to pass underneath the margin of a cover cap engaged by the feed plate 5 and having suflicient thickness to engage the margin of the sealing cap 6, whereby pressure may be applied to the sealing cap disk by means of the member 12 at the same time that pressure is applied to the cover cap by means of the plate 7, The

,front end of the member 12 is concavely -caps above the track ways formed by the forked arms E".

In order to secureincreased stability and strength in the guide way, I connect the forked arms E by a depressed web 15. The guide way however, is preferably provided with a central longitudinal slot 16 to facilitate connecting the slide members 12 and 5 with each other. This slot also-affords access to the bottom end of the magazine in case it becomes necessary to adjust the caps therein.

In the operation of the machine, the caps in the magazine drop when the feed slide is retracted to the position in which it is shown in Fig. 2, until the lower cap rests upon the guide way E, as shown in Fig. 2, in which the bottom of the magazine is indicated by the dotted line encircling the cap. The sealing cap will pass between the forked arms E and be suspended above the web 15, or if desired, it may be permitted to rest loosely thereon. An inward movement of the carriage 1 will thencause the inner endsof the members 12 and 5 to engage the margins of the sealing cap and cover cap respectively, pushing the combined cap into the lower end of cylinder B, the plunger being then in a raised position. The forked arms E hold the cap in a horizontal position until it is entirely received in the cylinder, whereupon it is held by frictional contact with the side walls of the cylinder with sufiicient stabilit to allow the feed slide to be withdrawn. [I downward movement of the plunger will thereupon push the sealing cap into the mouth of the bottle and adjust the cover cap to the top thereof. The bottle engaging cone 12, which forms the base of the machine and through which the cap is forced from the cylinder to the bottle, is the same in form and function as that disclosed in my former patent' With the above described construction, I am not only enabled to feed the compound ordouble caps above described with the same facility as the single caps delivered by the feed slide shown in my former patent, but I am enabled to deliver the compound caps with even greater certainty and exactness, owing to the fact that the margins of the sealing caps and of the cover caps are both engaged simultaneously by the feed slide, and also owing to the fact that the pocket formed between the forked arms E allows the sealing cap to hang suspended below the cover cap and therefore it adjusts itself by gravity in a true horizontal position when pushed away from underneath the pile in the magazine.

I claim 1. A feed slide for a bottle capping machine, having a plurality of cap engaging members, the working margins of which are located in different horizontal planes, with one margin sufliciently in advance of the other, to permit said margins to simultaneously engage upper and lower portions of a cap which differ in.diameter.

2. A bottle capping machine including a feed slide member having a concave front end adapted to engage cap disks of one diameter, in combination with another slide member connected with the first mentioned member in a different plane and having a concave front edge adapted to receive cap disks of a different diameter, one of said members projecting in advance of the other a distance equal to the difference in the length of the radii of the cap members.

3. A bottle capping machine, including the combination with amagazine for bottle caps open at its lower end, of a guide for the caps having arms extending underneath the magazine and having upper surfaces adapted to engage and support the margins of the cover cap disks on two sides, said arms being sufficiently separated to allow a suspended cap member of smaller diameter to drop between them, and a feed slide having one cap pushing member mounted to slide along the top surfaces of said arms, and another cap pushing member at a lower level and projecting in advance of the upper member a distance equal to the decreased radial dimensions of the suspended portion of the cap.

4. A bottle capping machine, including the combination with a cap magazine open at its lower end, of a guide having arms extending underneath the magazine and adapted to engage the margins of cover caps, said arms being sufficiently separated to permit sealing caps to'hang from the cover caps in the space between the arms, and a feed slide having cap pushing surfaces at different'levels adapted to simultaneously engage the cover caps and the sealing caps, said feed slide having a movement longitudinally of said arms to push the caps into registry with the mouths of bottles.

5. A bottie capping machine, including the combination with a'cap magazine open at its lower end, of a guide having arms extending underneath the magazine and adapted to engage the margins of cover caps, 7 said arms being sufficiently separated to per-' mit sealing caps to hang from the cover caps in the space between the arms, a feed slide formed to simultaneously engage the cover caps and the sealing caps, said feed slide' having a movement longitudinally of said arms to push the caps into registry with I i the mouths of bottles, and a reciprocating 151, i-the intervals between the feed slide moveplunger adapted to engage the caps and push them into engagement with the'bottles in ments.

15. In a bottle capping machine, a cap supasagna nation with a set of cap supporting guide GUSTAV STRANDT. .1 Witnesses LEVEBBI'I' C. iv-I, 1-H 1mm 1). Banm' 

